DEFENSE COMMUNITIES 360

BRAC Rounds Cut Excess, Transform Remaining Bases, Analyst Says

With the Pentagon focusing on a strategic review of its roles and missions as a way to find budgetary savings, now may be the time to consider “the mother of all BRAC rounds,” concludes a national security analyst with the nonprofit Lexington Institute.

It makes sense to revisit some of the decisions made by the 2005 BRAC Commission now that the war in Iraq is over and operations in Afghanistan are starting to wind down, argues Daniel Goure in the public-policy organization’s Early Warning Blog. The commission removed several installations from DOD’s list of proposed closures over concerns about the size of the military’s supporting infrastructure while the nation was engaged in two wars.

At the same time, the military’s industrial facilities have been forced to streamline their operations to remain competitive following past BRAC rounds. Letterkenny Army Depot, Pa., which has transformed its operations since 2005, now partners with major defense firms such as BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon in overhauling systems and in new production of major military hardware.